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Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Subterranean Balls: Gosforth (NZ254683)

What is so often overlooked in the history of coalmining is
the great amount of time, risk and expense that went into the sinking of
speculative new pits. There was never any guarantee of success, and such was
the sense of relief and celebration that followed a successful ‘winning’ of a
new colliery that quite often a subterranean ball would be held to mark the
occasion.

With a refreshing disregard for modern-day health and safety
concerns, these extraordinary events represent a fascinating cross-over between
the classes of the day, when the well-to-do would descend into the bowels of
the earth and mix with the pitmen and their families.

When coal was successfully struck at Gosforth Colliery in
1829 after a prolonged (and very difficult) sinking process lasting four years,
the powers-that-be (namely, Charles John Brandling and his partners) launched
forth into a typical underground get-together. From an unnamed source, thus:

The ball-room was
situated at a depth of nearly 1,100 feet below the earth’s surface, and was in the
shape of the letter L, the width being fifteen feet, the base twenty-two feet,
and the perpendicular height forty-eight feet. Seats were placed round the
sides of the ball-room, the floor was dried and flagged, and the whole place
brilliantly illuminated with candles and lamps. The company began to assemble
and descend in appropriate dresses about half-past nine in the morning, and
continued to arrive till one in the afternoon. The men engaged in the work,
their wives and daughters and sweethearts, several neighbours with their wives,
the proprietors and agents with their wives, and sundry friends of both sexes
who had courage to avail themselves of the privilege; all these gradually found
their way to the bottom of the shaft. Immediately on their arrival there they
proceeded to the extremity of the drift, to the face of the coal, where each
person hewed a piece of coal as a memento of the visit, and then returned to
the ball-room. As soon as a sufficient number of guests had assembled dancing
commenced, and was continued without intermission till three o’clock in the afternoon. No distinction was made
among the guests, and born and bred ladies joined in a general dance with born
and bred pitmen’s daughters. All now returned in safety, and in nice, clean,
and well-lined baskets, to the upper regions, delighted with the manner in
which they had spent the day. It was estimated that between two and three
hundred persons were present, and nearly one-half of them were females.

Gosforth Colliery was worked for a little over half a
century, until it was abandoned in 1884.

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